NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8316413" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, yes, you pointed out that you and another person used a random dungeon generator and then swapped off DMing. We fooled with this way back in about 1979 using the 1e DMG RDG. It works, but it is a pretty narrow definition of 'without preparation'. The problem with playing D&D without preparation is, what are you playing? The GM already presents all the material and adjudicates everything. So the main way that the players have ANY role in what goes on whatsoever is that the environment is predefined (by the GM or some module writer, whatever). This means when the players say "We go north!" the GM is at least constrained to relate the predefined information related to 'north'. That gives the players SOME traction, and to the degree that the GM happens to provide them with information about what is in each direction, they gain SOME agency.As soon as preparation is out the window, there is literally no agency left to the players whatsoever! I mean, they can regain some very limited scope of 'tactical agency' by virtue of the fact that the GM is obliged to describe what they see right around them at the time they set foot in a location, and thus they might make some meaningful choices about what to do there, assuming nothing 'hidden' is invoked by the GM during that scene. This is WHY the RDG was created, because it is the ONLY WAY to produce that function of the GM, besides having one! Technically another way would be to play a module. The problem there being of course that modules pretty much assume that the knowledge held by the players is a more limited quantity than that held by the GM, so all the 'mystery' (puzzles, etc.) will get spoiled. Again, the RDG fixes that issue, at the cost of a rather restricted and fairly repetitive and often nonsensical environment. Contrast this with Dungeon World, in which the GM is literally told he shall not create a complete map! Instead he's supposed to create NOTHING until he's had 'Session 0' with the players and they've established some basic thematic choices and setting through a process of the GM ASKING THEM QUESTIONS. The answer are BINDING on all participants BTW! You really COULD play DW without a fixed GM and play the 'full game'. It would require some conventions of play and logistics, but I'm pretty sure it would be viable if done right.</blockquote>

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